New rules could sink Baddeck ferry service

Transport Canada has ordered the Baddeck Lions Club to comply with new certification rules or end the free ferry service to Kidston Island they’ve offered for 61 years. Lions Brian Chandler, Dan Chiasson and Shane MacFarlane say complying with the regulations is impossible. (AARON BESWICK / Truro Bureau)

BADDECK — Tuesday night, a member of the Baddeck Lions Club polished the pins on his purple and yellow Lions vest and hopped on a plane to Ottawa.

A man’s got to do what he’s got to do.

Daniel Chiasson will wear that vest during a meeting with Sydney-Victoria MP Mark Eyking today, when he’ll lobby to save the small ferry service the Baddeck Lions Club runs from Transport Canada regulations.

For 61 years, the Lions have offered a free all-day ferry from a Baddeck wharf to Kidston Island beach through July and August. The pontoon boat ferry travels 300 metres each way across the harbour to the island, where the Lions Club provides lifeguard service and hosts swimming lessons for youth.

That is, it used to.

On Feb. 19, the club received a letter from Transport Canada telling it to abide by changes made to the Canada Shipping Act or terminate the service. The changes demand that the operators of commercial boats under eight metres in length must possess a small vessel operators proficiency training certificate.

The Baddeck Lions were told of the new rules in 2010 but were granted a two-year dispensation to come into compliance. That dispensation has run out.

“In the absence of a third year of dispensation, we won’t be able to run the service this year,” said Chiasson.

While a four-day course may seem like a small requirement to a commercial boat operator, it’s not to the Baddeck Lions.

The Lions raise nearly $30,000 annually to run the service, which hires four summer student lifeguards and a boat operator.

“The course isn’t a financial problem, it’s a logistical one,” Chiasson said Tuesday before he left for Ottawa.

“Between (the proficiency training certificate) and other certification requirements, you’re looking at a week of training. We can’t do that.”

Chiasson said it would be impossible to send a new summer student around the province to attend the various certification programs required by Transport Canada every year.

While a department spokesperson could not be reached for comment, its website states that the course training covers marine charts, radar, magnetic compass and electronic navigation aids.

“Our ferry only travels 300 metres, during daylight hours, across the harbour in good weather,” said Shane MacFarlane, a fellow Lion, on Tuesday.

“We have always complied with Transport Canada regulations, but this is too much. Transport Canada Atlantic has been very good to us and reasonable, but this is coming from Ottawa.”

The Lions have made sure the boat operator trained to receive the pleasure craft operators certificate and marine first aid. Recently, the club spent $20,000 upgrading the pontoon ferry.

Particularly egregious for the Baddeck Lions is being labelled “commercial” when the members raise funds to provide the service for free.

So Chiasson took his vest to Ottawa to talk to his member of Parliament. “We didn’t choose to take this political first,” he said. “We’ve sought out reasonable solutions to this situation. But this is an important service to this community, and nobody wants to lose it.”